Carpenter turned to lumber business
12/28/2001WEST UNITY, Ohio - Maurice C. Borton, who owned and operated a well-known lumber company here for many years, died Wednesday in Harborside Healthcare-Northwestern Ohio nursing home in Bryan, where he had been a resident for a week.
He was 73 and had suffered a series of strokes.
Mr. Borton was the proprietor of West Unity Lumber Co. from 1966 until his retirement in 1990.
The former lumberyard, on South Main Street, was a popular place with area tradesmen and contractors, according to his son, Jeff, of Archbold.
“He went into the lumber business after working as a carpenter himself,” Jeff Borton said. “He had worked as a carpenter on new homes and on remodeling. He enjoyed the lumber business.”
In 1990, after suffering the first in a series of strokes, Mr. Borton closed his business and retired. He suffered his most recent stroke three weeks ago.
A native of Fulton County, Mr. Borton attended what today is the Millcreek West Unity Schools.
He and his wife, Arlene, were married in 1950.
The couple enjoyed spending time at their cottage on Hillsdale County's Lake Diane, where they lived for a while until Mr. Borton's health worsened. They then returned to West Unity.
Surviving are his wife, Arlene; daughter, Amy Short; sons, Jeff, Jim, Dan, and John; sister, Margaret Brillhart, and more than a dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in New Hope Community Church of Bryan, where the body will be an hour earlier.
The body also will be at the Hollingshead Funeral Home, West Unity, after 2 p.m. today.
The family requests memorial tributes to Community Hospitals of Williams County Hospice.